Bainbridge Island School District Superintendent Faith Chapel is stepping down, and the school board is gearing up to find her replacement.

In a letter sent to the school board last Friday, Chapel announced her retirement and said it was an honor to work on Bainbridge, where she has been since 2001, serving as superintendent for the past eight years.

“I want to express my gratitude to you and to the Bainbridge Island community for the opportunity to serve as the superintendent of one of the finest public school districts in the nation,” Chapel said in the letter.

“It has been an honor to work with you and with a dedicated and talented group of administrators, certificated and classified staff to build upon a longstanding tradition of educational excellence and set the stage for the future,” she added.

District officials said Chapel will be missed.

“Faith has been an outstanding superintendent for our district,” said School Board President Mev Hoberg.

“She took the district’s helm at the beginning of the recession and successfully guided us through very trying economic times,” Hoberg said. “We emerged strong, and with her leadership we have focused on improving student growth and teacher development. She has set us on a great path, and we will truly miss her.”

Hoberg added that although Chapel will probably be remembered for her financial stewardship, “she’s done so much more.”

“During the hard economic times, a lot of districts were cutting their music and arts specialists and we kept ours because that was important to her — educating the whole kid.

“She was also focused on tightening things up in terms of data; how are we measuring how our kids are doing? She was instrumental in getting the focus on doing the right kind of measurements.”

The biggest challenge during Chapel’s tenure, Hoberg said, was state-level finances — “the fact that we couldn’t count on the state to do what they were supposed to do.”

And that’s still a challenge, Hoberg added, something the next superintendent will have to deal with.

The school district will launch a comprehensive search process to select the district’s next superintendent.

Officials said the effort will begin next week with a request for proposals from headhunter firms with experience hiring superintendents.

Chapel’s retirement takes effect on June 30.

While the school board hopes to have a replacement for Chapel in place by then, Hoberg said they’re dedicated to finding the right person and willing to wait, repost, and even hire a temporary superintendent until that happens.

Chapel said the decision to step down was a difficult one, but she wants to spend more time with family and friends and pursue avocational and community activities of personal interest.

In the meantime, she will continue to focus on ways the district can improve instruction and student learning and lead planning for the capital facilities bond measure.

Her advice for her successor?

“This is a wonderful community, just a fabulous school district,” Chapel said. “I think that being actively engaged within the community — and certainly with staff, students and parents — is absolutely important, but also a great source of joy.”

Chapel began her career as an intern teacher in Laguna Beach, California in 1975 and spent 10 more years as an elementary and middle school teacher in California and Oregon.

She began her administrative career in 1986 in Lake Oswego, Oregon, as a middle school assistant principal, and then became the principal of Hallinan Elementary, Lake Oswego Junior High and Lakeridge High schools.

After moving to Washington, she worked as the executive director of secondary schools in Central Kitsap School District before joining the Bainbridge district in 2001 as the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

She became superintendent in July 2008.